


Promises Promises

by adiwriting



Series: Current!Verse [5]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Cannon Divergent, F/M, Mutant!Felicity, Post Season 2 era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-13 07:30:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7967908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adiwriting/pseuds/adiwriting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver and Felicity's first date is hardly what either of them would have expected, but perhaps it's exactly what they both need.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promises Promises

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys for your continued support of this crazy idea that I had. I honestly didn't know if anyone besides me and my circle would even so much as glance at this thing. Glad to know there are some other people out there that love the idea of Felicity with powers as much as I do. 
> 
> Special thanks to Em and Mel for their help with this one!

_ I don't think I can make our date _ , Felicity’s text reads and Oliver's heart immediately drops.

Of course, she can't. He really should have expected this. Felicity’s way too good for him. It'd been a miracle she'd ever said yes to him in the first place. 

He debates how to respond. Should he ask her why? Would that be too invasive? Does he even want to hear her response? Should he fight it? Or is that too pushy? He likes to think that he respects women enough to never push them into something that they don't want to do. And clearly, Felicity doesn't want to go on a date with him. 

Who could blame her? He's hardly a catch. He’s unemployed and homeless, living in a basement hideout where he spends his time hunting down criminals while simultaneously avoiding the law himself. Not to mention that he's got so much emotional baggage that he's positive nobody will ever be able to put up with him. He couldn’t even make it work with Sara, and she has just as much baggage as he does.  

Felicity deserves better. He shouldn't have asked her out in the first place. It was selfish. Digg and Roy had just been so adamant that it was a good idea and with her being able to protect herself thanks to her powers… 

He'd been selfish. 

She deserves better. 

_ Ok,  _ he texts back. 

There's really nothing more to be said. 

Oliver looks at the gym bag he'd brought on his mission, realizing it’s pointless now. He can go back to the lair to change, he doesn't have a dinner reservation to keep anymore. 

He tries to swallow his disappointment and instead focus on the positives. He's just stopped a weapons shipment from entering the city. Detective —  _ Captain _ Lance is no longer hunting him down constantly. Thea is off exploring the world and finally away from all this tragedy. Digg and Lyla are having a baby. 

There is a lot to celebrate. Seven years ago, when the Gambit went down, he didn't think he'd ever have cause to celebrate again. Hell, last year when Slade was terrorizing the city, he didn't think he'd ever have anything good in his life. 

The fact that Felicity doesn't want to date him? It's ok. He’ll survive. 

At least, that's what he's trying to convince himself as it feels like his heart is tearing apart. 

“What are you doing back?” Digg asks as he pulls the van up next to Oliver’s Ducati in the alley behind Verdant. 

“Change of plans,” he says, not wanting to talk about it while the wound is still so fresh. 

“Right,” Digg says, nodding his head like he's got everything figured out. “And does Felicity know about these change of plans?” 

“Who do you think changed them?” he snaps, instantly regretting it. It's not Digg he’s mad at. It's himself. He should have never gotten his hopes up when it came to Felicity. 

Digg looks taken back and Oliver can't handle it. He storms past him, punching in the code to enter the bunker much harder than necessary. He then rushes down the stairs and throws his jacket off. He just wants to be changed out of his clothes and go. 

Go where, he hasn't figured out. But he can't stay here. There are too many reminders of her here. Even his goddamn bed was bought by her…

“It doesn't seem like Felicity to—”

“Can't we skip the talk?” Oliver says. “It's fine.” 

“It's clearly not fine. Listen, did she give you a reason?” Digg asks. 

“She doesn't have to,” Oliver says. “We both know why she changed her mind.”

“Man, you didn't even ask her?”

“Why would I ask her when I already know the answer?” Oliver huffs, quickly throwing on jeans and a sweater. 

Digg rolls his eyes, like Oliver is missing the point. But it's Digg that's missing the point. He's not seeing things clearly. He still thinks of Oliver as a good person… He's not. He's done too much in his life and clearly Felicity can see that. She doesn't want that for herself. Being his friend and partner is one thing, but being his girlfriend is something else entirely and she can’t handle that. 

“What exactly did she say?” Digg asks. 

“That she didn't think she could make our date,” he answers, grabbing his wallet off the table and his keys. 

“And what did you say?” Digg asks, following Oliver as he moves up the stairs, eager to get as far away from this place as possible. 

“Ok.”

“Ok…” Digg says, trailing off like he has more he wants to say but is waiting for Oliver to figure it out himself. 

“What?” he asks, annoyed.

“Did you ever think that maybe she just meant she couldn't make your date tonight? That maybe she got caught at work or that something else came up?”

Oliver doesn't respond. He clearly hasn't thought of that. But then, did that mean that maybe it wasn't the end of the road for them? 

No. 

She couldn't have just meant she wanted to reschedule, she would have said something…

“You won't know, until you ask,” Digg says, patting his shoulder. “I'm gonna head home to Lyla. Promise me you’ll talk to Felicity before you convince yourself that it's the end of the world.”

Oliver doesn't respond right away, but Digg continues to give him a pointed look until Oliver finally nods his head in agreement. 

He watches Digg walk to his car and waits until he’s in his car safely and turned onto the main road before he pulls out his phone. He glances at it before putting it back in his pocket.

He needs to clear his head before he can even begin to think about responding to Felicity. He picks a direction and just starts walking. 

It takes twenty minutes. In that time, he types out and promptly deletes at least thirty messages before he finally settles on one. 

_ Everything alright?  _

It's short and sweet. Doesn't reveal too much of his hand in case she really does want nothing to do with him, but is appropriately concerned. 

When she doesn't respond, he starts to wonder if he should be concerned for an entirely different reason. 

What if the message to cancel had been her way of protecting him from whatever harm she's found herself in? She's 100% the self-sacrificing type. What if somebody had taken her and  _ they _ sent the message to keep Oliver from discovering she was missing until it's too late. It seems far-fetched but then again, wouldn't that be just his luck? Besides, Felicity keeps mentioning this Essex Corp as if they have the ability to do just about anything. 

If they've taken her, Oliver may never find her. 

He runs back to the club and grabs his bike, breaking every law in an effort to get to her apartment as quickly as possible. 

When he arrives, he barely remembers to turn his bike off before running up to her door and pounding on it. 

“Felicity?!” he yells, not in the least bit concerned about the neighbors. 

When she doesn't respond right away, he starts seriously considering breaking down the door. 

“Felicity?!” he yells again as he pulls back, getting ready to slam his body into the door and force it open. 

He's a split second from throwing his body into the door when the porch light comes on and he hears her voice on the other side. 

“Oliver?”

His heart does a momentary flip for joy at the sound of her voice, before he processes that she hasn't opened the door yet. 

“Open the door,” he says, already picturing the worst case scenario — her on the other end with a gun to her head.

“Oliver, what are you doing here?” she asks through the door, which only increases his anxiety. 

“Felicity, let me in. Now,” he says, using his Arrow voice. 

“I'm fine, ok? Can you just come back in the morning?” she asks. 

“Not until I see you and know you're alright,” he says. 

When he gets no response, he panics.

“Listen, whoever’s in there, you’re making a big mistake,” he says. “You have no idea who you're messing with!”

He's just about to force his way in when she finally unlocks the door and opens it just the tiniest of cracks.

“Oliver, calm down. I'm fine. I'm alone. Nobody is holding me hostage. I'm just sick and don't want to infect you. Go home. I'll call you in the morning.”

He doesn't believe her. She sounds too nervous to be telling the truth, so he puts his hand on the door and pushes it open. His jaw drops at the sight in front of him. 

Felicity’s entire body is lit up like a Christmas tree. A very bright, very blue Christmas tree. He watches in shock as bolts of electricity travel down her face and neck, only to disappear under her robe. It’s then that he notices she’s standing there in only her bathrobe that barely touches her thighs. Any other day, that fact alone would cause him to gawk. But he can’t completely appreciate her body on display for him when he’s so distracted by how bright she is. She just so… blue. 

“Well don't just stand there! The neighbors will see,” she says, hiding behind the door and frantically waving him in. 

He steps inside and she quickly shuts the door and locks it behind her. 

He is about to reach out to her, when she steps just beyond his reach. 

“Don't,” she snaps.

His hand immediately falls to his side and his eyes go to the floor, not wanting to see the look of disgust her face. She doesn't even want him touching her now. 

“I don’t want to electrocute you,” she explains, and when he looks up, she looks incredibly embarrassed. 

Oliver starts to think that maybe he’s read this entire situation wrong. 

“Why did you cancel tonight?” he asks her point blank. 

“Because I look like a Smurf that swallowed a hundred glow sticks,” she says, giving him an incredulous look. 

He has to bite down on his inner cheek to keep from laughing. Somehow, he’s sure that laughing at her situation won’t win him any points. But her explanation is spot on… She does look surprisingly like Smurfette in that white bathrobe.

“What exactly is going on?” he asks instead.

She sighs and throws her arms in the air, which unfortunately causes a bolt of lightning to hit the wall. One of her picture frame catches on fire. She moves to grab the fire extinguisher that’s suspiciously already on the kitchen table, but he beats her to it and puts the fire out quickly. 

“Felicity?” 

“I don’t know,” she says. “I can’t tell if it’s a new part of my mutation or if it’s…” 

She trails off and he gets the feeling that there’s something she’s not telling him. 

“Or if it’s, what?” he asks. 

“I tried to call you and tell you I was fine, not to worry,” she says. “But…” 

Felicity holds up her phone, or what used to be her phone. It’s been completely fried and is nearly unrecognizable.

“When did this start?” he asks. 

He knows she had to have been fine earlier this evening because she’d been at work. He knows, because she gave them a hard time about being at work when they asked her to hack the traffic cams. 

She must be blushing, because suddenly the sparks of blue around her cheeks glow brighter. 

“Felicity…”

“It started when I was getting ready for our date,” she says. 

At the word date, another bolt of electricity leaves her and Oliver has to duck out of the way to avoid being hit by it. 

“I’m so sorry!” she exclaims, looking horrified. 

“Listen, if this is about the two of us—”

Yet again, a bolt of lightning leaves her and hits a vase on the mantle that had previously been filled with sand. The entire thing turns to glass. 

Oliver decides to chose his next words carefully for the sake of her furniture.

“If it's about _that_ _thing_ that was planned tonight? Don't worry about it. We can just pretend it never happened,” he says, even though the thought of doing so makes him sick to his stomach.

“No!” she says. 

“You're clearly upset,” he says, trying to be the rational one. “It's ok to not want this.”

“I'm  _ nervous _ you idiot. Not upset,” she says, rolling her eyes. 

“Nervous?”

She's nervous of him? Does she thinks he’d do something to her? 

“I'd never hurt you,” he says carefully, wanting to make sure she believes him. 

“I know that,” she says, crossing her arms tightly and shuffling her feet. 

“Then why are you nervous?” he asks, confused. 

“Well, let’s see? We’ve already exhausted every topic that one would normally talk about on a first date, and a second date, and a third date, and  _ every _ date, actually. And I’ve already seen you shirtless,” at this admission, Felicity bites her lips to stop herself from rambling anymore. Yet, she just can’t seem to help herself and continues, “Multiple times. Shirtless. All the time.” 

“There are still a few things we don’t know about each other,” he says.

“Like me being blue?” 

“Well… Yes,” he says, with a slight chuckle. “I can’t say I ever would have thought this was possible. But I was also talking about me.” 

“Please, name one,” she says, and he can tell she’s actually asking him, not saying it as an off-handed dig. Like she needs to know that they’ve both got things to learn about one another, still.

“The five years that I was away, I wasn’t always on Lian Yu,” he says. 

He knows he should feel nervous about this. He should feel a sense of dread revealing some of his darkest secrets to her, but right now, all he feels is calm. Maybe it’s because she’s bright blue and setting fire to her home and clearly has some demons of her own. More likely, it’s just her. She’s always had a way of setting him at ease. 

“Right,” she nods. “Russia. You told me about Anatoly and learning to fly a plane.” 

“Not Russia,” he says. “Hong Kong… And I have been thinking a lot recently about my time there. The choices that I had to make.” 

“We’ve all had to make choices over the years that we aren’t proud of in order to survive,” Felicity says. She’s about to reach out her hand to him when she realizes that she can’t do so without hurting him. 

He gives her a sad smile. 

He’s not sure what possesses him to do it, but he suddenly has the intense need to make sure that she understands what she means to him. What  _ this _ means to him. Whatever this ends up becoming.

“The entire time I was gone, I could never completely trust someone,” he says, shoving his hands in his pockets to stop himself from nervously rubbing his fingers together. “And when that goes on for so long, you stop seeing people for people. You see threats. Or targets.” 

“Don’t you think that I understand exactly how that feels?” Felicity asks. “Oliver, when I found out I was a mutant—” 

“Can I just…” he trails off, realizing that he’s being rude by cutting her off. “I’m sorry. I want to hear what you have to say. But I have to get this out before I lose my nerve.” 

“I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you nervous,” Felicity says.

He gives her a look, silently begging her to just let him continue. 

“Right… Sorry,” she says, moving her hands to mime zipping her lips. 

“When I decided to come home, I didn’t know how to turn that part of me off…” he pauses to take a deep, calming breath. “Then I walked into your office. You were the first person that I could see as a person. There was just something about you.” 

She nods, biting her lip. He can tell she wants to say something, but is respecting his need to get this out. 

“Do you remember when I told you that because of what we do, I didn’t think that I could be with someone that I could really care about?” he asks.

“Yeah,” she says with a nod, and he doesn’t think she even notices, but at some point, she’s completely calmed down and is no longer glowing blue. “I remember.” 

“Maybe I was wrong,” he says. 

She is about to say something when an alarm sounds. 

“Something’s wrong,” she says, rushing to her computer. She only has to touch the screen for the cameras in the bunker to come up. The entire place is on fire and can barely be seen through all the smoke. 

“What happened?” Oliver asks, moving to her side to get a closer look. 

“Oh god, Digg and Roy…” Felicity says, reaching for her phone before realizing it’s fried. 

Oliver covers her hand with his own. 

“Digg is at home with Lyla and Roy took the night off for a friend’s birthday.” 

“Oh thank god,” she says. “We need to get over there.”

Oliver nods and they both quickly move towards the door before Oliver grabs her arm to stop her. 

“What? Oliver, somebody just clearly tried to attack us, we need to get over there before the police do and figure out exactly what we have in the basement…” 

“I agree,” he says, staring at her bathrobe pointedly. 

She looks down and blushes — thankfully pink this time instead of blue. 

“Oh my god! I didn’t even… And you’ve been sitting here talking to me the entire time… I can’t… You didn’t see anything right? You would have said something if you had. You’re a gentleman right? Frak. Of course this would happen. Of course, I’m dressed in a bathrobe when I answer the door to you. I—” 

“Felicity,” he says, cutting her off mid-ramble. “It’s fine. I didn’t see anything. Go change quickly and we’ll get over to Verdant.” 

“Change, right,” she says. 

****

“You two shouldn’t be here,” an officer tells them as they exit her car and look on at Verdant in horror. The entire building is up in flames and one whole section has already collapsed in on itself. There are people standing all around staring at the building. 

“This is my family’s building,” Oliver says.

“I thought the Queen family lost all of their money,” the officer says, eyeing them suspiciously. 

“Okay, it  _ used _ to be my family’s building,” Oliver grunts and looks like he’s about to punch the guy, so Felicity steps in. The last thing they need is for Oliver to get arrested for assaulting an officer.

“Listen, Officer…” she pauses long enough to take a look at the name on the man’s uniform. “McReynolds, we’re just concerned. Oliver and his family have owned this building for years. We just want to make sure that nobody was hurt.”  

Officer McReynolds seems to relax at this and smiles at her, which, for some reason, causes Oliver to tense up beside her.

“Nobody was inside as far as we can tell,” Officer McReynolds says. “The fire department is still working though.” 

“What happened?” Felicity asks. 

“Preliminary evidence suggests that somebody set off an explosive,” he says. “Do you know of any reason that somebody would want to target your club?” 

Felicity can think of 503. And that’s not even factoring in all the people that hated Oliver Queen  _ before _ the Undertaking or the Arrow and his many list of enemies.  

“No,” Oliver answers, causing her to snort. 

As both of them look to her, her eyes widen in shock. She hadn’t meant to do that.

“I just mean… Well…” 

Crap, she chastises herself. Why does she always let her mouth get her into these situations. 

“At least half of the neighborhood hates what this club has done for rent prices in this area,” Felicity says, trying to come up with something to say that won’t bring up the Undertaking or anything Arrow related. “The Queen family isn’t exactly Starling City’s darlings anymore.” 

Oliver glares at her and she pointedly looks at the officer to avoid his anger. 

“Verdant being here has helped clean up the Glades. It’s brought in more revenue to a dying part of the city,” Oliver argues. 

“And while some would call that charity. Others would call it gentrification and say that you were taking advantage of the poor,” she says. 

“Taking advantage?” he growls, causing her to throw her hands up in surrender.

“I said some people. Not me, personally,” she says. “What I mean to say is… No, Officer. We don’t know who did this. But there’s certainly no shortage of people with motive.” 

She can see Oliver rolling his eyes and taking a deep breath, which typically means that he disagrees with her, but knows better than to try and argue with her. 

“Are they going to be able to save the building?” Oliver asks, bringing them back to topic.

“It’s too early to tell,” he says. “Why don’t you leave your information with me and I’ll pass along more as we know it. I don’t really think this is the best neighborhood for you two to be standing around in.” 

The officer looks specifically at her, and Oliver actually wraps his hand around her arm and pulls her slightly behind him. 

“I can take care of myself,” Felicity says defensively, shrugging Oliver off.

“Thank you, Officer,” Oliver says and starts to pull her away. 

“What are you doing?” Felicity whispers so they won’t be overheard. “We need to figure out who did this.” 

“I have an idea,” Oliver says, staring up at the roof of one of the neighboring buildings. She’s about to turn around to see what he’s looking at when he grabs her face to stop her. “Go to Digg’s. He’ll watch over you.” 

“What’s going on,” she asks, trying to turn and see what it is that Oliver’s spotted. “Why do I need somebody to watch over me?” 

“Just get in your car and go to Digg’s, please. You can run comms from there,” Oliver says. “I’m going to take down the people that did this before they can do anything worse than they already have.” 

“But your bow…” 

“I’ll be fine,” he says. 

Felicity nods and moves to get into her car, taking a peek at the roof Oliver had been looking at as she does so, only there’s nobody there anymore. She’s about to close the door behind her when she hears one of the firemen shout, “There’s a basement in here that wasn’t in the plans!” 

She looks to Oliver who is doing his best not to look affected, but she can tell he’s worried. They certainly knew the police finding the Arrow Cave was a possibility. That’s why they rushed over here. But having it confirmed is something else entirely. 

“Go, I’ll take care of it,” she promises, and he does. 

His never ending faith in her to do just about anything is at once empowering and terrifying. She honestly has no idea how she’s going to protect them from the police finding their secret hideout. Fire will destroy a lot, but it won’t destroy everything. Still, she has to come up with something. Oliver is counting on her to, and she can’t let him go to jail after all he’s done to protect this city. 

****

“So our first date was completely ruined,” Felicity says as he is walking her to her door.

They are just returning from a very long night hunting down Werner Zytle. During which, he was hit with a drug that messed with his head a lot more than he’s willing to admit to anyone. The last thing he wants to do is worry Felicity. It’s been a long enough night. The sun is just starting to rise and they’ve only got a few hours before he needs to be at Queen Consolidated to try to win back the company. 

“I wouldn’t say that,” he says, smiling down at her, forcing everything else to the side. He refuses to focus on Zytle when he has a beautiful woman staring up at him. 

“Please, as if I didn’t ruin it enough by turning all blue and stuff… Zytle blew up the Arrow Cave, then hit you with that psychotropic. I’d say it’s been a sufficiently sucky night,” she says. 

She’s right. It’s been a rough night. He’s felt off ever since that Vertigo showed him that his worst fear is being Oliver Queen. He can’t deny that it’s true. For so many years, the thought of being Oliver Queen was terrifying. It’s the reason he stayed away for so long despite multiple opportunities to come back to Starling during those 5 years away. It would be easy for him to use that hallucination as an excuse. To slip into a depression and push everyone away. He’s certainly got years of practice.

However, he doesn’t want to spend his life fighting between being Oliver Queen and the Arrow. Not anymore. He wants to have a normal life. He wants to eventually find the happiness that Digg has found with Lyla. And if he’s being honest with himself, he’s pretty sure that the potential to find that with Felicity is there. 

Unlike he originally thought only a few months ago, Felicity can take care of herself. Her mutant powers have seen to that. 

So while he could use what happened tonight as an excuse to run, he isn’t going to. After 5 years away and 2 brutal years back, he just wants something for himself that’s not filled with darkness and despair. He doesn’t want to die alone. He won’t. 

“We aren’t calling it the Arrow Cave,” he says with a teasing smile, trying to lighten the mood. “And you didn’t ruin our date,” he says. 

“Really? Because we aren’t on it,” she argues, putting her hands on her hips. 

It really shouldn’t, but it just turns him on so much whenever she argues with him. He loves her fire and how she never lets him get away with anything. She’s everything he could ever want in a woman. 

“Who says?” he asks, unable to stop himself from smiling.

“I say!” 

“Well why couldn’t this be our first date?” he asks. 

“Because it can’t. I bought a dress,” she says.  

“So you wear it on our second date.” 

“We were going to eat italian,” she says. 

“Pretty sure ordering pizza technically counts as italian. Mario’s delivers 24 hours a day and has a delicious breakfast pizza,” he says, placing a hand on her forearm and pulling her arm off of her hips. The second he does so, she seems to lose steam.  

“I wanted our first date to be special,” she says with a sigh, looking up at him completely defeated.  

“It’s special because it’s with you, not because we went somewhere fancy,” he says, gently. “Honestly, don’t you think this is better? You were so nervous about how our first date would go, that you turned yourself into—” 

“Don’t you dare say Smurfette,” she cuts him off with a glare.  

“Okay,” he says, holding back a laugh. “But you see my point? You were so terrified for our first date... But if we just make this our first date, then it’s already over and you’ll have survived. Nothing to be nervous about anymore.” 

“So if this is our first date, then it’s already over?” she pouts. 

“Why? What did you want to do on our first date?” he asks, trying not to get his hopes up too high, but the rest of his body has other ideas and he instantly starts to feel warm all over with anticipation of finally getting to touch her in the ways he’s wanted to for months.

“Well for starters, food would be nice,” she says, stepping closer to him as she drags a finger up his forearm, causing him to shiver.

“Yeah?” 

“And I also hoped that I’d at least get a goodnight kiss at the end of our first date,” she says. 

“Would you accept a mid-date kiss instead?” he asks, swallowing deeply as he watches her lick her lips. 

“Well, traditionally I’d say no, but then, traditionally, dates don’t include an exploding building and a bow-and-arrow fight,” she says, tilting her head back, letting him know he has her permission. 

He leans in the last few inches and covers her lips with his own. He feels the slightest of shocks from her and before he can even really enjoy the feeling of kissing her, she’s pulling away. 

“Are you okay,” she asks. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to shock you. Did it hurt?” 

“I’m fine,” he says, and when she looks doubtful he leans in to kiss her again, just to prove her wrong. 

She shocks him again, but rather than hurting him, it actually sends a warm tingling feeling down his body. It feels good.

They stay like that, kissing for a few more moments, before he pulls back. As much as he would love to do more with her, it is only their first date and he’s determined to take things slow. He doesn’t want to mess this up. 

“You promise it didn’t hurt?” she asks, biting her lip. 

“I promise,” he says. “Now let’s get inside and order you some food. Let me guess, you want an entire pizza to yourself.” 

She smacks his arm and glares at him. 

“You know, for the record, all the energy running through my body eats up a ton of calories,” she says. 

“I’ll have to take your word for it,” he says, picking up the phone to dial for food. She reaches out and grabs his hand to stop him. 

He gives her a questioning look, until she says, “Are you sure you still want me… Want this? Even though I’m a total spaz who turns blue when she’s nervous?” 

“Well, I already knew you were a spaz when I asked you out,” he teases. 

“I’m being serious.” 

“Felicity, I am absolutely sure that I still want you,” he says, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze. 

“So turning blue didn’t turn you off?” she asks.

“Nope,” he says. “If anything, I thought it was absolutely adorable. Flattering even.” 

“I think you’re still high from that psychotropic,” Felicity says, reaching up to place the back of her hand against his forehead. 

“Nope,” he says, taking advantage of the opportunity and wrapping his arms around her waist. “Just high on you.” 

“Okay, now I know you’re still drugged,” she says with a laugh. 

He places his forehead against hers and waits for her to stop laughing. He has to tell her something. He needs her to understand.

“I don’t want to fight between being Oliver Queen and The Arrow anymore,” he says. 

“You don’t have to…” 

“For so long, I have, though,” he admits. “I’ve been denying myself anything real because I’ve been terrified of something happening to the people I care about because of my mission.”

“Oliver,” she says, reaching up to place her hands on either side of his face. “I can take care of myself.” 

“I know,” he says. “Which is why I’m giving into the feelings I’ve had for you for so long. But I need you to know that I’m terrified of losing this.” 

“With or without you in my life, I’m in danger,” she says. “You can’t protect me from the world. I’m a mutant…”

“I can try,” he says with a small smile, but he knows what she means. There are no guarantees for them. They both have dangerous lives that could take them away at any moment. So the most they can do is enjoy every second they can get together. 

“Oliver, promise me that you’ll never break up with me for my own protection,” she says. 

“Don’t ask me that.” 

“No, I need this,” she says. “You don’t know what it was like before with…” she stops herself from whatever it is she wants to say. He wants so badly to ask her for more information, but she changes topics before he can. He’ll just have to ask her about it later. 

“I don’t think I can do this if I’m always going to be worried about when you’re going to leave me,” she says. “I need to know that you trust me to take care of myself and that you won’t break up with me out of some misguided sense of nobility.” 

“If I’m going to promise you that, then I need a promise from you,” he says. She nods so he continues, “Don’t ever go looking for trouble. You use your powers in self-defense. But you don’t actively go after anyone that could hurt you.” 

“I won’t be reckless with my life,” she promises. “But I can’t promise that I won’t ever use my powers offensively. Not if it means saving somebody’s life.” 

“I guess that’s the most I can hope for, huh?” he asks. 

She nods. “So we’re really doing this?” 

“Yeah,” he says. “We’re really doing this.”

“Well then, I think somebody said something about ordering me a whole pizza?” she says as she opens the door and they both step inside. 

He rolls his eyes, good-naturedly. “You know, I’m sure there are healthier ways to get in all the calories your body needs without all that saturated fat.” 

“Our date already had to contend with a bomb, do you really want to see if it’ll survive a salad, too?” she teases, thrusting a pizza menu into his hands. 

“Can I help it if I just want to make sure you’re around for many years to come?” he asks, already pulling out his phone so that he can place their order. He knows that arguing with her about food is a losing battle, but that doesn't mean he’ll stop trying anytime soon. 

“I guess I can’t argue with that,” she says, reaching out to grab his jacket and pull him in close to her. 

“You’re not blue anymore,” he says, smiling down at her. 

“Guess I’m not nervous anymore,” Felicity says. She stands on her toes and he wraps his arms around her hips to pull her the rest of the way, until their lips finally meet again. 

She moans as his tongue makes its way into her mouth. She starts stepping backwards without breaking contact with him until they reach the sofa. 

“I thought you wanted me to order pizza,” he teases as she drops down the sofa and pulls him down until he’s practically laying on top of her. 

“It’s called multitasking,” she says, holding up his phone in her hands where the screen tells him that their pizza will be delivered in approximately 35 minutes. 

“I love your powers,” he says, as he buries his face in her neck and makes it his mission to figure out all of the places on her body that make her moan. After all, he can do a lot with 35 minutes. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love <3


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